


Abandon all hope ye who enters here

by Aramirandme81



Category: The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Fantasy, Fire, Gen, Horror, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-01
Updated: 2013-11-01
Packaged: 2017-12-31 02:58:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1026454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aramirandme81/pseuds/Aramirandme81
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The answer to a Halloween challenge between the ever lovely Elenhin and myself.<br/>I got: Abandoned asylum/hospital. And the words: Typical, blue, frozen, random and missing.<br/>This is what I made of it. </p><p>It's not all that scary but it's my first go at scary so bear with me please.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Once more unto the breach

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elenhin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenhin/gifts).



> Dedication: For the one of the most amazing and generous fic’ers I’ve ever had the pleasure to cross words with, mistress Elenhin.  
> This was a work of love and was made with such, sadly though it was also made with very little sleep and even less time (or maybe care) for hunting out all my mistakes before posting. So if you find one (and you will) please let me know so I can send in the rescue team.
> 
> The aim was horror, I, being me, ended up with more suspence and humor. But it still Works for halloween in my opinion.
> 
> Hope you enjoy reading it even half as much as I did writing it.

No one is really sure how they came up with the idea, or who first suggested it.

Well they know it wasn’t Anders, from the way he reacted when he saw the sign post. 

“Oh hell no! Have you completely lost your minds?!” He almost yelled as he finally knew where they were headed. 

“Well if we have we are in the right spot.” Olaf quipped, making the other three snicker and laugh.

Only Anders refused to be swayed by something as feeble as humour. 

“Okay I get that this entire family is screwed up in the head yet you still think we need to ‘bond’ and shit, but seriously guys: An abandoned asylum?’ If you had to go for the typical ‘stupid fucked up American teenager horror flick’ way of bonding why couldn’t we just have gone camping on ancient burial grounds or something? Did it Have to be an asylum?” he wined, but unlike usually when he was just being a pain when things didn’t go according to his will, this time there was some real fear behind it. 

“You are such a pussy.” Axl said as he jumped out the second Mike had slowed down enough, and all but ran to the huge front gate and jimmied the ancient looking lock open to let them into the grounds. 

“Please Mike, please let me out here. I’ll walk back to town, please?” Anders begged, actually begged, to be let out so he could walk the ten plus miles back.

“No Anders. We are having this family bonding trip and that’s final.” Mike bit out 

“Ty move, before he gets going, move and let me out.” Anders tried, but his brother remained seated. This was after all the reason they had put Anders in the middle, so he couldn’t bolt.

“Come on Anders, your just being silly.” He tried, part of him laughing at his brothers panicking, while a tiny part was scolding all of them for doing this when they knew Anders had a phobia when it came to mental health, though to be fair Ty hadn’t thought it extended to buildings long abandoned or that Anders would be quite as freaked out as he was.

“Fine I’m being silly, I’m a pussy, whatever you want, as long as you let me out.” Anders said unbuckling his seatbelt and trying to climb over Ty.

Only Axl jumped back in the passenger seat after having relocked the gate after them at that very moment so Mike put his foot down and accelerated away from the gate, towards the looming structure of the main building that could be seen peeking over the treetops in the distance. 

 

***********

 

Anders was still pleading his case to be let out when Mike pulled up at yet another big gate.

“How many gates are there?” Axl asked as he once again jumped out to open a gate.

“This should be the last one, the first was to the grounds the second to the main area and the small park surrounding it.” Olaf said, making everyone look at him, even Anders went quiet. 

“What? I did research on the place when we talked about going here I wanted to know the history of the place so we could get the full experience.” Olaf explained as if it was the only logical thing to do.

“Good for you, only I for one do NOT want any experience with this place beyond what has already been forced upon me, let alone the ‘full experience’, so I repeat: Let me out!” Anders said and made another go for the door. He nearly made it too, only Olaf grasped his legs and Ty his torso.

 

Five minutes later the car was parked and they stood outside it looking up at the huge four story Victorian style building being back lit by the soon to be setting sun, even Ty had to admit it did look a little creepy. 

Only Anders wasn’t with them, as much as he had wanted out of the car before, he now refused to budge from it, and if Mike hadn’t made a point of taking his keys and putting them in his shirt pocket none of them had any illusion to the fact that Anders would have been out of there before they had a chance to unload their gear. 

By the way he was eying the dashboard he still might take of the second they gave him enough time to hotwire the car without being stopped.

 

Anders looked from the building to his family, deciding to have one more go at getting out of it.

“Come on you guys, you don’t really want to do this. We can go back to town, find a nice hotel or motel or B&B or something. We find a bar and get a few, heck I’ll even pay. What do you say Mike? Not having to pay anything? You always say you always have to pay, well here’s your chance not to.” 

“No Anders.”

“Olaf, Olaf come on. Thinking juice ad libitum? A nice bed, maybe a Jacuzzi? All the food you can eat?” 

“I’ve brought my own juice. And we have jerky, sausages and some really funky army rations we can cook.”

Anders looked slightly more worried as half his family had turned him down.

“Ty, bro, help me out here?”

“What, no tailored request for me?”

Anders moved closer to the door, reached out to placed his hand on Ty’s arm and pulled him down.

“Please Ty, you Know how I feel about places like this.” Anders pleaded as much with his eyes as with his voice. 

Ty sighed. 

“I know Anders, but come on. The place is abandoned, no mental patients or even staff in sight. Not even a grounds keeper or anything. Nothing to freak you out. And besides, I’ve kind of been looking forward to it.” Ty said and clapped Anders on the shoulder. “Loosen up Anders, it’ll be fun you’ll see.”

Anders groaned and turned to Axl, but he didn’t even get to open his mouth.

“Forget it Anders. I’ve already promised Zeb to bring him picture of the creepiest stuff I can find.”

“Why doesn’t Bragi work on you guys?! Can you tell me that?” Anders lamented and banged his head on the headrest of the seat in front of him. Then in a last ditch attempt yelled: “I’ll pay your rent for a fucking year if you help me get out of this!” after Axl as he started to walk up the stairs.

Axl half turned back at that, so Olaf jumped in: “Right that’s it, I’m declaring it a family thing.” His words causing Anders to groan from deep within his chest and resume the head bashing. 

“Not fucking fair grandpa.”

“No one ever said it had to be fair, now quit your whining and get your arse out here and grab your pack. We need to get going so we can get in there and find a place to sleep before it gets dark.” Mike growled from the back where he was unloading sleeping bags and such, glad that Olaf had found a way to get Anders to comply, for now at least.

“Fine. It wasn’t like I was looking forward to coming back here tomorrow morning and finding your cold dead half chewed remains anyway. It would be kind of awkward having to explain that to the police, or worse yet to Michele. ” Anders grumbled as he got out and caught the pack Mike threw his way with a ‘Ooof!’

“What the hell is in here, bricks?” Anders bit out but didn’t put the pack down.

Mike rolled his eyes and locked the car as they started towards the staircase leading up to the big solid wood doors. 

“Hey come on you guys, you have to see this some of the furniture is still here!” Axl yelled as he opened the door and disappeared inside closely followed by Ty.

“I do NOT want to do this.” He said teeth clenched and eyes shut the very picture of furious misery.

“We know Anders, you’ve told us so repeatedly in the last ten minutes.” Olaf said shouldering his bag and grapping Anders under one arm as Mike took the other, all but carrying the shorter man up the stairs.

“It will be fine Anders, all you have to do once we are in there is be there. If during that time you want to find a corner and freak out over your irrational fears you just go right ahead.” Mike said as they let Anders get his feet under him and turn around to face the huge doors.

Anders gave Mike the finger, then turned a full circle, taking in everything as if it was the last time he would ever see the world again. Then after a wittering look at both the taller men, he sighed looked at the doors and as Olaf opened the door and Mike pushed Anders to enter the building muttered: “Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate.” under his breath.

“What?” Olaf asked as he looked around the entrance hall. 

“Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate.”

“Yeah I got that part. But what does it mean? Is it French or something?” 

“It’s Italian. From The Devine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. It’s the inscription on the gates to the underworld and means: Abandon all hope ye who enters here.” Anders explained in a deadpan voice as he tentatively took a step further inside.

The sound of the heavy doors closing behind them suddenly seemed quite a lot more ominous that normal to Mike.


	2. Double, double toil and trouble

Axl can barely contain his excitement at being here. This is just so absolutely awesome! He’s never done stuff like this before, but he’s always wanted to. Sure he’d wanted Zeb to come, but Mike had declared it a family outing, and even though he kind of whished that he could share this with Zeb, it’s actually kind of incredibly cool that he’s here with his family. How many people can say their family took them to an abandoned asylum as a family outing? Not too many he wagered, but then not too many families were the living embodiments of Norse gods either. Axl grinned at his own thoughts and snapped yet another picture for Zeb. They had only entered the big reception area, yet he’d already sent Zeb twelve pictures so far.

“You’re going to run out of battery if you don’t take it easy. We still have a lot of ground to explore.” Ty remarked as he came up to where Axl was snapping pictures of the waiting area, complete with wooden benches screwed into the wall and even an old magazine of some sort on a dusty corner table.

“I charged it just before we left so there should be plenty of juice. This is so cool though. Am I the only one hyped up about this?” Axl asked fairly bouncing on the spot.

Ty shook his head no.

“No, I’m pretty excited as well. This is like the perfect family outing for us.”

“I know! I love the whole classic horror movie vibe in here. We have the entire cast too, from rugged reluctant hero,” Axl pointed at Ty, who smiled at the compliment, “to plucky handsome youth.” Axl smirked and held a hand to his own chest, then mock frowned. “But we do need a busty blond to be nervous and to swoon in the arms of the male leads and get her cloths torn in a tasteful yet revealing way.”

Ty grinned.

“Well, if you can overlook the busty part, we do have a nervous blond with us.” He said and pointed to where Anders was standing almost just inside the doors, eyeing them up as if contemplating escape.

Axl laughed out loud at that. 

“True, but I don’t think I’ll want to drag Anders off for passionate ‘we are going to die any minute now so please make love to me one last time’ sex in an empty office or something like that.”

Ty laughed as well at that.

“You might be right there. Besides I think Anders is much more the ‘Let me give you something to fight for’ sex kind of type, at least if what he says about his skill is to be believed.”

“Even if everything he has ever hinted at about his skills were true, that still won’t get me past the fact that he’s not only a dude, he’s also my brother.” Axl said then cogged his head to one side as he looked at the blonde. “Still, he might be able to pull off the dress and heels.” He added in a thoughtful voice, causing both he and Ty to laugh out loud enough to make the rest look at them.

“What so funny?” Olaf asked coming over to join them. They explained and soon all three of them were laughing. 

 

At the other end of the, frankly speaking overly large, reception area Anders was staying as close to the doors as he could without actually leaning against them. The others laughter was grating on his very much over active nerves, and it was all he could do not to snap at them to shut the fuck up. But he was on thin ground with his family lately so he just kept his mouth shut, after all it wouldn’t do to burn the bridges they had only just started mending somewhat again. 

So gathering his courage, however little that might be, he took a few steps further in and went to look at the emergency evacuation plan that still hung on the wall by the stairs besides the large desk. If they had to stay here, it would be a comfort to know every exit even before it got completely dark he thought and, thanking his good memory, quickly memorised the schematics. According to the emergency plans the main building was a large rectangle building, with two enclosed courtyards, it stood four stories high above ground and had two subterranean levels (which Anders silently wowed NOT to enter under any circumstances, family thing or not). On the ground map that hung beside the emergency plans Anders could see that aside from the main building there were a handful of other buildings more or less surrounding it. The map simply listed them as ‘garage’, ‘groundkeepers’, ‘staff housing complex’ and such. ‘Administrators house’ was the one on the square furthest from the main building on the map right on the edge of the patient grounds and apparently surrounded by its own fence as well. Even looking at the map was giving Anders the shivers and he was just about to turn around when a voice from right behind him made him jump. 

“Interesting reading?” Mike asked.

“Fuck man, you have got to learn to make some noise when you move, I nearly had a heart attack!” Anders breathed, hand on his chest trying to get his heart to slow down again.

Mike shrugged, but didn’t say sorry because they both knew he really wasn’t. 

“So what were you looking at?” Mike asked again, looking at where the others was laughing and posing for pictures in various ‘horrifying’ poses.

“The emergency plan. It’s good sense to know were the exits are when your family drag you along to condemned buildings, aside from the imminent zombie apocalypse one of those idiots over there will undoubtedly trigger at some point this evening there is always the off chance that the building will collapse or catch fire or some such shit. So yeah, exits are good.” Anders said casting a longing gaze at the closed doors again.

“First of, the building is not condemned.”

Anders gave him a sceptic look.

“It isn’t! I checked with the land registration office and it’s not listed as such.”

The look Anders gave him clearly told him what he thought: That it wasn’t condemned because no one had set food in it to do so since it was abandoned. 

Mike was getting a little annoyed by Anders unwillingness to cooperate with this outing and their plans. “You aren’t getting out of attending Anders, so you can drop that negative attitude right now.” He said, even as he too looked at the plan. Though he could only laugh at Anders imagination over what he said would happen, he did have a point about the building being old and the merit of knowing where the exits were. “Why don’t you go see if you can find us somewhere suitable to camp for tonight while I get the three stooges over there to take a look at the plan as well.” Mike said walking towards the others without waiting for Anders reply, besides he knows how it’s going to go. 

And sure enough its: “Me? Alone?! Have you lost your mind? No wait, forget that question I already know the answer to that. And it’s yes.” Then going over to get the pack Mike had told him was his, he calls out: “Fine, I’ll go, alone, into this house of spirits. I just hope for your sake that you brought salt and gas so you can salt and burn my body, because when I get eaten or worse by whatever is in here I’m coming back to haunt your sorry asses!” Then he shoulders the pack and walks up to a set of doors marked ‘Corridor A1 N’ which he carefully opens and after peering down the corridor now revealed to him, sighs and reluctantly enters, al the while muttering some really unflattering things about his family under his breath. 

 

“Wow Mike, you actually got him to move from the door. I’m impressed.” Axl says as they watch the door Anders has just gone through slowly start to drift shut, and completely cutting of the sound of his muttering as they close behind him with a soft ‘snick’.

Mike smiles at his brother. 

“I’m actually fairly sure he only left to try and find one of the other exits he saw on the map, you know in case the building collapses or some such bull. This reminds me, I want you to all take a look at the floor plan and memorise the exits if you possibly can, or at least get a sense of where they are.” At the annoyed looks from the other at this he holds up his hands in a soothing gesture and says: “Look, Anders might be paranoid in the extreme about our location, but he right in making sure he knows his exits. Just in case.”

Olaf is the first to give in.

“Just in case. It’s always good to know if we want to go outside for a piss or something.” 

Axl facepalms at that.

“What?” Ty asks.

“I think I forgot to pack the toilet paper.” Axl confesses, causing Ty to groan, Mike to go: “Axl!” and Olaf to shrug. 

 

********

 

Anders stops muttering as soon as he hears the door close behind him.

In fact he stops doing anything at all.

For several seconds, maybe even minutes it’s not as if he cared to cheek his watch, he just stands where he is as if frozen listening to every little sound the building makes; the wind howling along the outer walls, rattling windows and making the lose and half rotten shutters clap and creak as they hit the windowpane and wall, the call of a bird can be heard through an either open or smashed window, the muffled sound of his brothers and grandfather speaking, somewhere nearby the drip drop of a poorly closed tap or a leaky …something ads it’s voice to the not so quiet stillness of the old building. 

In short nothing out of the ordinary or something to be afraid of, almost any of these sounds could be hear on almost any given day at one of their homes. Yet Anders can’t help but swallow nervously as he finds the flashlight in his bag turns it on, even if there is still some light that manages to get into the corridor through various open doors or peepholes in the closed ones, and begins walking again. If he’s not mistaken the corridor he chose should lead him by a few ‘family rooms’ where visitors could see their relatives, through the main common area of this floor past a set of stairs and elevators that sits as one corner of a T section that can lead him into the patient wings of the asylum. 

As he reaches the section he stands still for a second and a piece of poetry from his English class filters through and flash before his inner eyes as he looks down the empty corridor leading into the asylum, before he really knows it he’s reciting it in a whisper.

“'Tell them I came, and no one answered,  
That I kept my word,' he said.  
Never the least stir made the listeners,  
Though every word he spake  
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house  
From the one man left awake…”

Anders shivers and turns away, after all he has no desire to go into the asylum itself, even before the freaky poetry. So instead of turning right down the completely dark and incredibly spooky corridor, he continues straight on down the cross path that should lead him to the main dining room, a room which should also have a door leading outside to a sun terrace that gave access to the gardens and overlooked the maze. 

Why the fuck the staff had though mentally unstable people would find pleasure in getting lost in a maze he couldn’t for the life of him figure out. ‘Maybe they made bets on who would make it out and who would lose what was left of their minds and just settle down in a dark corner to wait for some unsuspecting fellow patient to attack and eat giving a whole new meaning to the word ‘dead-end’?’ Anders thought with a sickly smile that failed to hide the fact that he had just managed to creep himself even more out than he already was.

‘But then, no horror flick not taking place on a space station or a ship would be complete without a maze.’ Anders thought as he neared the double doors over which a big dusty sign read: Dining Hall.  
After taking a moment to calm down and taking a deep breath he pushed open the doors and, just as he had done at the last set of doors in this place, cautiously peered inside to see what the other side held before he decided if he wanted to step through them. He lifts his flashlight to illuminate the room to be fully certain nothing lies in his path.

 

Being fully focused on what could possibly be in front of him he failed to notice the movement behind him. 

 

A dark shape separated from the deep shadows that the setting sun was struggling and failing to disperse, it seemed to sway for a moment as if uncertain before the sound of Anders opening the doors wider makes it turn that way. It’s just standing there for a second, then it’s moving towards Anders, unseen and unheard it moves nearer. 

 

Anders peers into the dining hall. It’s almost as big as their old school cafeteria, not that that had been all that big compared to the one you saw in movies since their old school was fairly small, also most of the furniture seems to still be there, only stacked on one side of the room, that, along with the fact that the ceiling is vaulted, manages to lend the resulting emptiness an almost cave like feel. The glass in the doors to the terrace momentarily reflects the light beam from his flashlight confirming that the plan in the reception was accurate. 

‘Yes, this will be an okay place to stay now that there seems to be no way of avoiding having to spend the night.’ Anders thinks and stepped into the room the doors swishing shut behind him but not fast enough to prevent the shadow from entering as well.


	3. By the pricking of my thumbs

Anders felt something move down by his legs, and heart skipping a beat looked down where something cold and hairy was now rubbing up against his legs. 

The first thing he sees is big yellow eyes and sharp teeth in a mesh of mattered fur.

He’s very close to let lose a scream but manages to keep it down to a nervous squeak, as the thing lets out a rather pitiful: “Miau!”

Anders just blinks and looks at the big beautiful, if slightly the worse for wear, flaxen longhair cat who looks right back at him for a few seconds before it starts rubbing against his leg again, making Anders let out a short bark of laughter that spooks the cat enough that it runs a few feet away.

“Oh sorry kitty, you just came really close to scaring the shit out of me.” Anders says, not able to keep the wry note of embarrassment out of his voice. He cast a quick look around to make sure he’s alone and no one will hear or see him, then he crouches down, slowly extends his hand towards where the cat is standing watching him, and makes a few soft noises to assure the cat that he’s not dangerous. Either he’s very good at it or the cat is trusting and starved for attention because it comes over fairly quickly and starts purring almost the second Anders starts scratching it behind it’s ears. 

“Did you find your way in here only to get lost?” A soft miau is his answer.

“Yeah, I’m stuck here too. Oh I know the way out, it’s just my arsehole family that decided their dream outing happens to be the very picture of a living nightmare for me, and now they won’t let me leave because it’s a ‘family thing’. Though you’d think getting out of this would be easy, since they normally aren’t too excited about spending time with me, but now that I don’t want to do something they just can’t do it without me it seems. Like I said: Arseholes.” The cat purrs and rubs against his hand. Anders rewards it by scratching both harder and quicker for a few seconds. 

“Well it’s nice to know someone agrees. Don’t suppose you could talk to them for me?” The cat only lies down and roll over exposing it’s belly. “You are properly right, I’m not getting out so I might as well give up.” He stands up wiping his hands on his knees. “I might be stuck but I think I can help you get out of here, come on I’ll jimmy the door or a window for you.” He picks up his flashlight again and walks over to the terrace doors. 

They are locked and require a key, a quick cheek reveals that it’s the same story with the windows, but that’s hardly going to stop a creative man like Anders. A quick fumble in his pockets for his wallet, a flip through various cards until he finds a suitable one, a few seconds to find the right spot followed by an expert touch and the correct amount of pressure applied and the lock springs open.

“There you go. Now don’t go getting lost in places like this again.” Anders admonishes the cat as it dashes out into the ever darkening evening and freedom. 

‘By the gods does he wish he could follow behind!’ Even with the maze looming like a dark shadow only some thirty or forty yards away he’d much rather head out the terrace doors and go around the building to get to the car. ‘If Mike thinks missing keys is enough to stop me from taking a ride he’s got a very poor memory indeed.’ Anders thinks and can’t help but grin at the memory of the first time he ‘borrowed’ Mike’s car. Anders shakes his head and get to work at finding the best corner to sleep in. 

He finally settles on the corner furthest from the big serving hatch and the door leading into the rest of the building but closest to the doors leading outside. He drags and flips over one of the longer tables to use as a sort of bed frame since it’s underside has been spared dust and, what luck, no one has left gum or other less savoury stuff under it, so it is infinitely more clean than the floor. 

He’s just sitting down on one of the chairs when he hears the ‘dulcet tones’ of his family’s voices drifting in through the doors. He lets the flashlight shine on the glass panel in the door so they will know he’s in here, then starts going through his bag to see what Mike has felt it necessary to bring.

 

“Wow, Anders do you think you could you have found a bigger room in this place to camp?” Axl says as he takes in the cave like room.

“Well the gymnastics hall or the swimming hall might be bigger, I didn’t cheek. But hey if you don’t want to sleep here you could always find someplace else, I’m not stopping you.” Anders says and frowns at the ridiculous amounts of candles in his pack. “Is Mike planning on conducting some sort of ceremony? Or is it just that I’ve been voted the one to carry all the blasted candles?” He asks and holds up one of the many boxes of candles. 

“Not that I know off.” Ty says as he emulates Anders and turn over a table to use as a bed.

“Hmm. Well if he is and it requires a sacrifice I would suggest we offer up the idiot who’s idea this was.” Anders says and coughs as Ty’s violent tipping of the table sends dust flying.

Axl still looks around with a dissatisfied look on his face.

“You couldn’t have found somewhere with soft furniture? With all the stuff still here there’s bound to be something. Hey there might even still be mattresses!” 

Olaf nods, liking the way Axl thinks.

“We could go look, if there are any we could just sleep there.” He says and both he and Axl looks at Ty who just shrugs.

Anders looks at them like they truly belong in here, which is to say as if they were completely insane. “No, no way. I’m here, I’m IN here, I’m in here and I’m maybe even contemplating lying down on my sleeping bag at some point, but there is no way, no way in HELL I’m sleeping in a patients room or on a mattress dragged from any room in this place. N-O W-A-Y!” Anders says and the stony cast of his face lets them know that this time there will be nothing they can say that will sway him.

“And no one is forcing you to. We’ll stay in here tonight, together since that was the idea of the whole thing.” Mike assures from where he’s standing just inside the doors, having obviously heard what they had been ‘discussing’. “But,” He continues “I trust you’ll have no objections to anyone else fetching a mattress if they want to?”

Anders is relieved that they will stay here and not further in or gods forbid in a patients room, but the thought of anyone disturbing the rooms makes the hair on the back of his head stand up.

“Well I do, but I’m guessing that: Because you’ll risk pissing of the spirits’ won’t be a good enough reason for you, so you go ahead and do what you want, you will anyway.” Anders answers the holds out the candles towards Mike. “And what is with all the candles?”

“Well we’ll need light to see by, or did you want to sit in total darkness when the batteries in the flashlights give out?”

Anders shakes his head no. “Candles are fine, candles are good. Oh look! Candles!” Anders says and holds up a box in one hand, the digs into his bag and produce another box. “And look, even more lembas bread.. er .. I mean candles.” 

Ty reaches out and takes one of the boxes from Anders, who hisses and clutches the other box to his chest making Ty smile. 

“Learn to share Gollum. And let’s get some of these babies lit, because there goes the sun.” Ty says and watches the last of the natural light disappear and leave them with only the four flashlights they currently have lit. 

“Right, Anders and I will put up the candles and make this place a little more conferrable.” Anders snorts at the last part and Mike sent him a warning look. “You three go see if you can find any mattresses for those who want them, which does include me.” 

Everyone agreed and the other three grabbed their own flashlight and headed out into the asylum. 

 

******

Anders had been placing candles in the tiny holders Mike had naturally brought, because he was the uncle of all boy scouts, and arranging them on various tables and chairs that they dragged out to form a sort of circle around their camp area. At one point they had heard a yell of some kind but Mike had just motioned for him to keep going. He’d been working steadily and without complaining but he kept looking at the doors, both the one the others had left through and the ones leading outside and he was constantly returning to hovering near the last.

“Haven’t… haven’t they been gone awfully long?” Anders asks as he places a candle on the windowsill by the door. 

“Not that long Anders.” Mike says from where he is looking through his backpack for the extra batteries to the camp lights he’s also brought along to use while they made dinner and the like, the candles being more of a ‘well they seemed appropriate’ choice, though he’d be damned if he admitted it to Anders of all people, and watches Anders move even closer to the glass doors. 

“If you get any closer to those doors Anders, I’ll tie you up to make sure you stay here.” 

“Try it and I will claw your fucking eyes out and piss in the empty sockets, then tell you it serves you right when you writher on the ground screaming in agony.” Anders bit out, the genuine fear curling around in his guts making him harsh and his voice rougher than usual.

Mike looks up at him at those words, really ‘looks’ at his younger brother. It might be the white light from the two powerful flashlights being bounced back and spread out by the ceiling but Anders seems almost as pale as Ty at his worst, and now that he’s finished placing out the three packs of candles they agreed on his arms are held rigid at his sides fists clenching and unclenching, his eyes keeps flickering around the room, never lingering long on anything before they flitter on to the next thing, his pupils which the relative darkness of the room should have made bigger are only pinpricks in a sea of pale blue. 

“You really are scared.” Mike remarks surprised, he had honestly thought it was more of an idea Anders had gotten into his head that he should be anxious around places like this, but looking at him now Mike realises that the fear is very much a real thing for Anders. 

“No shit Mike, it’s not like I haven’t told you guys that shit like this creeps me out. Why did you have to make it a place like this?”

“It wasn’t my idea. But it seemed like a fun, if slightly fucked up, way of bonding as you called it.” Mike shrugs, beginning to feel just the tiniest bit guilty that they have sprung this on Anders like they had. Because Anders is right, he has told them every time mental health and hospitals came up that stuff like that creeped him out. Obviously he hadn’t, like they had thought, been playing it up, but rather as it now seems he’s been down playing just how much it really does freak him out.

“Some fun, see this is me having a blast.” Anders quips pointing at his deathly pale face as he puts on the sickliest smile Mike has ever seen. 

“We are here now, and the others are having a blast. But I promise you if you are still this … anxious tomorrow after breakfast, I’ll see if we can’t figure something else out for the rest of the weekend, and if not I’ll drive you into town so you can head on home alone okay?” Mike askes and a bit awkwardly places one hand in a comforting gesture on Anders shoulder.

Anders looks first at the hand then at Mikes face, he closes his eyes for a few seconds and Mike can fairly feel his brother gathering strength from his nearness, it left him feeling oddly humbled and pleased that even when their relationship was as strained and flayed as it really was Anders still trusted him on some deep and primal level to keep his word and protect him. 

Anders opens his eyes again and gives a little half smile.

“Okay. I guess I can live with that.” Then his smile turns wry, “Unless of course I do get eaten tonight then I guess you can just stay or go as you like.”

Mike bit out a laugh. “That’s the spirit. Now come on let’s get these candles lit.”

They set about their task in the lighter atmosphere that had nothing to do with the shine of the candles getting lit.


	4. Somebody's watching me

Axl, Ty and Olaf had debated if they should go back along the corridor they had come down when they had looked for Anders, or if they should turn right when they exited the big dining room. Axl who wanted to see as much as possible wanted to turn right and since none of the other two had a preference they went that way.

Olaf and Ty was talking about the likelihood of finding anything soft to sleep on when Axl, who had let himself fall back suddenly jumped forward with a roar causing both the older men to startle and turn around pointing their flashlight straight at his face.

“Ahhh! You guys those are really bright.” Axl said blinking then burst out laughing. “Oh my god your faces! Priceless.” He nearly doubled over, Ty and Olaf looked at each other and soon joined in.

“Very funny Axl. Please don’t do that again, I nearly lost my grip on the flashlight, and you know the lecture Mike would give if that happened.” Ty pointed out as he held his giant of a brother in a headlock. Olaf merely smirking and watching, glad the boys were having fun.

“Ow, ow, Uncle, uncle!” Axl cried out and Ty let him go. “It’s fucking unfair, no matter how much taller I get you always know just how to hold me.” He grumbled good naturedly as he rand a hand through his hair.  
Then smirked. “But I guess it’s okay, because those faces? I just send the vid to Zeb! Ha!” And he was off running down the corridor Ty hot on his heels. 

Olaf shook his head fondly and muttered “Kids.”

There were only a few rooms down this corridor it seemed. The first two had both lead into the large kitchen. The ones after those had been individual toilets. Now though the rooms they were passing were much larger than patient rooms. It wasn’t hard to guess what their use had been, because aside from the fact that it really was a ridiculous amount of stuff that had been left behind the signs on the doors were still intact. So far Olaf had passed a group therapy, a ‘fabric workshop’ and a woodwork room. The door now on his left read Music room and he was disappointed to find the door locked. With all the stuff left behind he had a brief thought to maybe finding a guitar or something, but for all his strength and finesse he couldn’t force the door. Giving up for now, but with the clear intend to ask one of the others if they could open the door when they got back to the ‘camp’, Olaf turned away and headed further down the corridor the sound of Axl yelling out: “I am not an animaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallll!” and the rattling of metal could be heard alongside Ty’s laughter.

“You are such a dork. Come on let’s get back.” Ty said from further in, and the beams of their flashlights appeared from behind a bend.

Olaf gave a wave as they came towards him. 

“Find anything?”

“A couple of workshops, all with locked doors, and a dead end.” Ty said giving a shrug.

“There are bars and such blocking the entrance to the patient’s quarters. And for some reason I couldn’t Odin up and move them?” He looked at Olaf for an explanation of the last part.

“Well, have you been able to just ‘Odin up’ as you say at will?”

“Yes, well no. Maybe?”

“That is incredibly unhelpful Axl.” Ty said and padded him on the shoulder with a look on his face that clearly said: And you were doing so well too.

“No the times I’ve used it before I’ve been either really angry or annoyed.”

“Hmm I’d say your power is in part motivated by your emotions, it is for most of us even the fully human, yours is just even more so.” Olaf said and shrugged.

“So, no breaking the lock on doors unless I’m angry enough or really, really need to?”

“I don’t think so no. So we should go back and try the other way see if that entrance is unlocked?” Olaf suggested, and the others agreed. 

 

They head on back, hearing the muffled voices of Mike and Anders talking as they pass by the double doors again and turn around the corner. 

The corridor by the stairs and elevator is even darker that the others they have passed, apparently it doesn’t have any windows or doors with windows to let any of the beginning starlight in like the other corridors had had. 

A few feet down it splits into a crossroad of sorts and they come to a standstill. 

“Does anyone remember which way leads to the patient rooms?” Axl says and lets the beam of his flashlight shine down each of their choices by turn. 

“Ehm no, I was focusing on the exits like Mike asked us to.” Ty says and shrugs, then along with Axl turn towards Olaf who is just sort of standing there.

“What?” He asks when he finally notices the others staring.

“The patient rooms grandpa?” Axl asks.

“Who should I know?”

Ty sighs and Axl barely resists the urge to hit himself in the head with the flashlight.

“Try shining the light on the walls maybe there is a sign.” Ty suggests and sooths action to words.

On the second pass the beam lands on a sign placed at about eye level for Axl and Olaf. 

“Courtyard 1.” The plaque with an arrow pointing down the right corridor reads. Not what they are looking for. “Ward B1 N, Ward B1 S, Ward C1.” The one pointing to the corridor in front of them says. Possibly the one they want. “Courtyard 2.” Is the print on the one leading to their left. 

So the middle one it is then.

The entrance to the ward is marked by a set of doors but unlike the other one this one is neither bared nor locked.

Axl pushes through the doors and take a step into the ward. It’s a long hall with doors on both sides, its dark but the slivers of starlight that creeps in through the windows in the doors makes it seem almost lit compared to the total darkness they just passed through.

“You said earlier that you read up on the history of the place. Anything interesting to tell about this ward?” Ty asked as he closed the door to yet another empty room. Seemed they had actually bothered to clean out this wing entirely. So the hope of finding a mattress in this ward was obviously not all that great. 

“If I remember what I read this should be where the short time patients were housed, the ones that were only here for short stints, more visitors than residents.” Olaf answered. 

“So no homicidal ghosts in this wing?” Axl asked and held his flashlight under his chin illuminating his face in a most disturbing way.

“None. But there was a rumour that the ghost of a young man could be seen wandering this ward at night.”

“Cool. What did he die of?” Axl asked and snapped a picture of the long corridor.

“He was a patient that hung himself in despair of being left here by his family. The truly sad thing was that not only was he not insane but only suffering from stress, his family never meant for him to stay here more than a week, only none of them remembered to tell him so he didn’t see a reason not to end his life if he was left to rot in here.” Olaf explains.

Ty gives a sympathetic nod. 

“It’s kind of ironic that he took his own life because he wanted to get away from here and then he ends up haunting the place. That has got to suck.”

Axl and Olaf nodded, then everyone shivered as a cold gust of wind blew through the ward. 

“Did you just…?” Axl asked no one in particular.

“This place is ancient, and it’s been abandoned for well over a decade, so a little draft is to be expected it’s frankly amazing there aren’t any more leaves and stuff in here.” Ty said as his light fell on the doors on the end of the ward.

‘Ward B’ was painted over the doors.

“So Ward C has a tragic ghost and no mattresses. What can you tell us of Ward B?” Axl asks as Ty tries the door and finds it unlocked even if it binds a little.

“I really shouldn’t be telling you two this, I was going to tell everyone at the ‘camp fire’ after we ate.” Olaf said.

“Ah come on, you know Mike don’t care for all this and you’ll only scare Anders.” Axl snickered.

“Hmm true. Very well then, the B1 Wards were the children’s wards.” 

Both his grandsons paused at that.

“Children?” Axl asked and swallowed uncomfortably.

“It’s not only adults that has mental problems Axl. Most problems of that sort are hereditary and start in childhood or adolescents.”

“Wow you really did read up.” Axl says to lift the darkness a little, managing to make them all smile.

“I told you so. Should we cheek here? Or if you are too uncomfortable we can take the stair up to the second floor that’s where the women’s wards were.” Olaf asked, seemingly the one least affected by the thought of the tiny patients that used to walk these halls.

“I’m not dragging a mattress down the stairs. Let’s just look here.” Axl said and Ty wholeheartedly agreed. 

“So uhm, please tell me there is no horror tails about the children’s ward?” Axl asked as they decided on the doors leading to Ward B1 N. 

“And if you tell him about twin girls asking strangers to ‘come and play with them, for ever and ever’ I will confiscate your dope.” Ty said with a wink causing Olaf to laugh and answer with a: “But all work and no play makes me such a dull boy you know.”

Axl groaned.

“I’m never going to live that down am I?”

“What the fact that for almost a year you ran screaming every time you saw a pair of twins? Now why would you think we’d keep teasing you about that?” Ty said evil smirk in place. 

“It was all Anders’ fault I swear. Who let’s an eight year old watch The Shining anyway?”

“Someone who has fallen asleep on the couch?” Olaf said, because that had in fact been what had happened, if he remembered correctly Anders had been really sorry about it too once he’d found out Axl had been having nightmares, and even let him sleep in his room for weeks.

“Yeah well it’s so not fair, everyone else have this twin sex fantasy, me? I have a twin nightmare.” Axl grouched and opened a door at random without cheeking what it said first. “So were there any myths about this ward?” He asks as she stick his head in to get a look. 

“Well there is the typical unseen child crying in the night that all children’s hospitals and such have, but nothing more than that if you want it to be restricted to the children’s wards. There is a child ghost here though. The website said that only a few years after the place opened a little girl named Lucy lost her life here under very suspicious circumstances. She’d been crying all day so one of the nurses took away her teddy bear,”

“Bitch.” Axl said and Olaf gave a nod of agreement as he continued. 

“The nurse threw it in the trash, and that night Lucy who couldn’t sleep without her teddy bear, got up and went looking for it. Somehow she got out of the ward unnoticed and found her way down to the incinerator just in time to see the janitor throw the teddy in.”

“She didn’t.” Ty said, already having guessed what would follow.

Olaf gave a grave nod.

“She did. She ran up and before the janitor and the groundskeeper whom he’d been talking to knew what was happening Lucy had jumped in after the bear. The janitor and the groundskeeper both ended up as patients here because they kept hearing her screams. Screams that was said to have woken the entire hospital. 

When the fire in the furnace was finally out they had no way to clearly identify what was what in the ashes so they buried the lot in a grave and marked it with a fountain ironically enough. It’s in the middle of the maze. 

Only it seemed Lucy didn’t like her place of rest, because shortly after both staff and patients alike started reporting of strange things happening: Chairs being moved, pages in books turning on their own, lights flickering and matches being blown out as soon as they were struck. They ‘knew’ it was Lucy because the nurse who took her Teddy was being haunted by her and she saw her twice, both times left her covering on the floor in hysterics, in the end she quit her job to escape Lucy but the day she did her house burned down while she was sleeping she never made it out.  
Lucy is still here though, she been spotted all over the grounds and house. It’s said that if you catch much more than a glimpse of her something terrible is about to happen. She’s not exactly a shy ghost though so hundreds of people have heard her or seen her out the corner of their eye in this last century. There’s even a verse about her on the website. Let’s see I think I remember it…. Yes something like this:

Have you heard fair Lucy sing?  
Her voice so bright and clear.

A ghost taught Lucy how to sing,  
To draw the mortals near. 

Will you come to Lucy’s place?  
Will you spend the night?

If you enter Lucy’s maze,  
She might give you a fright.

Lucy is a naughty girl,  
She won’t stay in her tomb.

So better stay away from her,  
Or it could be your doom.” 

Olaf finished the recital and both Ty and Axl shivered. 

“Now that,” Axl said. “that is freaky. And a proper ghost story.”

Ty and Olaf both agreed and they continued on in their search.

 

“You know, as much of a mad house we lived in as kids this would have been way worse.” Axl said a few minutes later and pointed to the twelve metal bunk beds that was crammed into the small room he was currently searching.

“They kept children in here? No wonder they were shut down.” Ty said and gave a shiver.

“I thought they just up and left? Weren’t that the story?” Axl asked Olaf.

“Well they did get shut down, but only after it was discovered that a lot of the patients had mysteriously disappeared. The staff was charged with medical malpractice, but as rumour would have it that was merely the authorities way of covering up what had really been going on.” Olaf cut of and leaned closer to his captivated audience and in a lowered voice continued. “It’s told that the administrator was really a nazi war criminal who had escaped and was using the facility here to continue his research. It’s said that Lucy wasn’t the incinerator’s last victim, and that it burned more than just coal and trash. That the small cemetery in the corner of the park should really be much, much bigger. And that when the police finally came they were met by the sight of smoke rising like an ominous cloud from the administrator’s house. The remaining patients were all just sitting about on the grass in some kind of trance like state none of them making any noise except heavy breathing. But even so it was not quiet … the screams coming from the burning house could be heard all the way up to the main building. And when they did a head count they found that most of the senior staff, including the administrator, was nowhere to be found.” 

“But, but what about the burning building? Didn’t they try to put out the fire? Didn’t they cheek there?” Axl asked.

“Oh they tried calling the fire department, but by the time they got here there was only a few columns and crumbling walls left. And yes they cheeked the ruins, they found a few bone fragments and such in the charred remains, but before they could do a thorough cheek the ruins collapsed in on them self and down into what must have been a very deep cellar, most of the surrounding ground followed it down, so that the fence surrounding the garden now surrounds a sink hole instead. It was deemed to be too unstable an area for anyone to go in and cheek out the rubble so we’ll never know what really happened in that buildings final hours. 

But some say that every so often you can see lights flickering in the crater and if you listen carefully you can still hear the people trapped inside the building, still burning still screaming.”

 

The three of them stood in total silence for a few seconds, the two gruesome tales in the very spot where they took place weighing down on then, the darkness and the cold starlight seeming to have gained an almost physical presence.

 

*creak*

 

All three jumped and yelled out in freight turning their flashlights on the source of the noise.

Further down the corridor a door was now standing slightly ajar.

“Go cheek it out.” Axl said and gave Ty a small push.

“Me? Why me?”

“You are the god of all things cold and dark, you’ll stand a better chance against a ghost than any of us.” Olaf said surprisingly reasonable even if his voice was a little unsteady.

“Yeah? Well he’s Odin God of victory and shit, he could go.”

“Nah if he dies we all die.” Olaf said not tearing his eyes of the door

“Oh gee thanks grandpa, that’s really reassuring.” Ty muttered and took a step forward, followed by another when nothing happened.

Two more steps and the door creaked again as it was opened a fraction more. 

Ty might be unable to really feel the cold, but he still felt something like a chill move down his back as he froze body tensing in anticipation of what could be opening the door. His grip on the flashlight firms and the beam blinks a few times.

“Ty, please tell me that it’s you making the air turn cold in here?” Axl whispers from somewhere behind him.

Ty glances at his hands and sure enough ice crystals have formed on the handle of the torch. 

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Ty whispers back and tries to let up it’s kind of hard to do though when you are pretty much scared out of your pants.

The door opens another inch …. 

 

 

“And you call Anders a coward.” 

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

All three of them scream and jump with fright at the sudden voice.

Olaf dropping his torch, Ty sending out a blast of ice that only manages to bind him in place, and Axl tries to wield the torch as a sword only he turns the ‘bright’ end in his own direction and manages to temporarily blind himself.

“Fuck we are doomed if you lot ever have to defend us from anything.” Mike says trying for grouchy but failing miserably to hide the amusement in his voice.

“But Mike, the door…” Axl blinkingly starts only to be interrupted by another creak of said object.

Everyone who still has their flashlight points it at the door.

A tuff of fur is visible for a few seconds the it disappears behind the door.

“It just some dumb animal. Maybe a cat Anders said he saw one in here.”

“Are you sure?” Axl asks while Olaf uses his regained torch to help break the ice holding Ty to the floor.

“Well if it’s not a cat it’s either a damn big rat or a possum, those pesky little devils are everywhere. Nice work with the ice bro, you might want to practise your aim a little before you take the show on the road though.” Mike says, and though his face is in darkness the smirk can fairly be heard. As can the sound of the finger Ty throws his way in response.

“Help Olaf free your brother Axl.” Mike said and started walking towards the door of all things creepy.

“And what are you doing?” Olaf asked.

“I’m going to go against my principals and use Ullr to help find us mattresses. Which, as Anders so ‘kindly’ pointed out, I should have done from the start.” 

Mike closed his eyes and then went out the doors to the ward. 

“Oi!” Ty yelled as he finally got his last foot lose.

“Come on lets catch up.” Axl said casting one last look at the still open door further in, and then gesturing to the others they all quickly followed Mike out of the ward. 

The second the doors had closed after them leaving the ward was once more in silence and darkness, the door that had so frightened three of them silently drifted close. A whisper soft childish giggle could be heard, and in the frost still left on the window from Ty’s outburst the word ‘hello’ slowly appeared.


	5. Fire walk with me

It’s fairly easy to catch up to Mike, since he’s waiting for them right on the other side of the doors.

“You know Anders is right, you need to learn to make some noise when you move.” Axl remarked.

“God of the hunt, I’m supposed to be able to sneak up on my pray.”

“So where to oh mighty Hiawatha?” Ty asks and Mike smirks.

“Should you really call me that when we’ve all seen you in that Indian do?”

Ty groans as the other snicker.

“Fuck I had forgotten about that. Forget I ever said anything.”

“What will I get?” Mike said and pointed to the stairs. “We have to go one story up.”

“Mmm, would you accept muffins?”

“You brought muffins?” Axl asked from behind them, he and Olaf was bringing up the rear.

“Yes I did. I suppose you two will want a lion’s share for forgetting as well?”

“Oh sure, I’ll also accept payment in the form of booze or any other baked goods you have.” Olaf said with a gesture that was clearly meant to convey that he was being particular magnanimous.

“Oh well that’s a relief, and when Anders asks why I’m plying you lot with heaps of stuff and he get’s none?”

“Errr, that it’s a secret and only those who went on the treasure hunt get to eat the treasure?” Axl suggested.  
“That… that’s really mean but it might actually work.” Ty said then shook his head. “No, you’ll just have to share and I’ll bake you each a batch one we get home.”

“But..” Axl began, he wanted his bribe now!

“No but’s Axl. We are here to bond not to create more cause for friction. Take the deal, you’ll get more cupcakes that way, and maybe even a chance to decide the flavour.” Mike said and pointed his torch towards the doors that read: Ward B2 N. “We need to go in there.”

The door they wanted was the first one they came across in the ward and bore the mark: Storeroom. 

Mike tried the door and gave a pleased little sound as he found it unlocked. Both he and Ty let their torches shine in and lo and behold, there were three mattresses.

“There are four of us.” Olaf said as they pulled their spoils out. 

“Yes well there are no mattresses to be had in here, unless you want to go to the third floor and get the ones up there? Or maybe the ones in the lower basement?” Mike said as he closed the door after them.

“Not particularly no.” Olaf said and hefted one mattress under his arm. “Come on Axl grab one and let the two shorty’s battle for the last one!” He said and hurried down the stairs as much as was possible when you had to light your way with a flashlight in one hand and had a mattress under the other.

“Ehm.” Was Axl’s answer but he still followed.

“Oie, you tossers!” Ty yelled after them. But Mike only placed a hand on his arm.

“Let them run. We’ll put all of them together when we have to sleep. If they have objections we’ll remind them that I’m the one with the car and you are the one with the edible food.” 

That said they too descended the stairs, though at a much more sedate pace.

 

As Mike and Ty entered Ward C1 they were greeted by the sight of Olaf laughing and Axl cursing and holding a hand up to his nose.

“What now?” Mike asked and left Ty to handle the mattress.

“He ran straight into the doors, and knocked himself on his arse, good thing he was carrying a mattress or he’d have hurt his backside too.” Olaf laughed, and neither Ty nor Mike managed to supress a laugh.

“Is’ nawt fu’kn fun’e!” Axl managed to get out from behind his hand.

“Don’t be such a grouch Axl, you would have laughed if it had been any of us. Now move your hand and let me take a look.” Mike said no longer laughing but if Axl had turned his torch on him he would have seen a glint of humour in his eyes.

Axl removed his hand and blinked violently as Mike directed his torch straight at his nose.

“Close your eyes stupid.” He mumbled as he checked out his nose, ending with a firm grip on the ridge. 

“OW!”

“Well it’s not broken but you did manage to bust a blood vessel. Just tilt your head back as much as possible and we’ll help guide you.”

“But the door is locked.” Axl got out as he tipped his head mostly back, his speech clearing now that he wasn’t holding his nose.

“Locked? But we passed through it just minutes ago.” Ty said. 

“Well it’s locked now.” Axl said and shrugged.

Mike tested and sure enough the doors didn’t budge more than an inch.

“Try pulling instead of pushing.” Olaf suggested.

“They are swing doors grandpa they should work both ways. And would you stop doing that Ty?” Mike said as he tried the doors again.

“What?” Ty asked confused the noticed that he could see the others breath in the light beams. “That’s not me. I’m not doing anything.” He said causing everyone to direct their beams a him. “Would you stop that?!”

“Ha ha Ty, very funny now cut it out.” Axl said.

“I swear it’s not me.” Ty said, and the expression on his face told them he was telling the truth. 

“Fuck. I’m calling Anders, maybe he can open the door from the other side.” Mike said and pulled out his phone, his breath misting enough to slightly obscure his view of the tabs. 

“If it’s not you then…?” Axl began, and turned around letting his flashlight shine over everything as he slowly turned, the sound of the occasional drop of his blood hitting the floor mixing with their harsh breathing.

 

“Fuck this!” Axl growled as nothing could be seen and all Mike could get was a ‘no signal’ tone, and, letting his still slowly dripping bloody nose be, slammed his shoulder into the door with all his might and weight, resulting in the sound of splintering wood.

“Once more and you’ve got it.” Mike said. “I’ll help, on three. One, two, Three!” and they threw their weight against the doors that sprung up under the pressure. The cold air seemed to disperse a little with the opening of the doors. 

As they tumbled out and regained their balance the beam from Mike’s flashlight reveals what had ‘locked’ the doors.

“What the hell?” He picked up the item which turned out to be one end of a now broken wooden broom.

Axl picked up the other end looking at it in silence for a few seconds before he squeezed his fist close causing the wood to start splintering. Oh yeah he was pissed now.

“That little prick. This is his revenge for us tricking him out here. Well I’ll show him what I think of his humour.” Axl growled and took a step down the corridor that would lead him to where Anders was.  
A step was all he managed though before Ty was in front of him blocking his way.

“Whoa Axl, think before you act.”

“Get out of my way Ty.” Axl said and tried to get around his brother. 

“No Axl, you will Not.” Ty touched Axl’s chest and an icy cold spread out from his touch as he spoke. “You nearly killed Anders last time you lost your temper, I’m not about to have a repeat performance, so you will Cool The Fuck down!” The last part was more growl than speech and it was Hod’s black eyes shining out from Ty’s face that burned into him. 

Axl drew in a deep breath twice then gave a nod to Ty, or rather to Hod.

“I’m good.” 

Hod gave him a doubtful look but ultimately seemed to be satisfied because Ty blinked and he was back to himself again as well. 

“Well…. That was intense.” Olaf said from behind them in such a deadpan voice that he managed to break the tension. 

“No shit. Axl you really need to get a better handle on your temper.” Mike said and clapped his brother on the shoulder. 

“But for now you need to go get the mattress that just saved your arse and get it back to the dining room if you still want to spend the night here?” Olaf said

“Why wouldn’t I?” Axl asked as he picked up the aforementioned mattress.

“Well, you did nearly crap your pants because of a cat, and then had a mild freak out about Ty’s lack of control.” 

“Hey!” Ty and Axl both exclaimed at this rather, if not entirely incorrect then certainly, unfair claim since Olaf himself had been just as scared. 

“And then you like totally lost your cool about a practical joke which was actually both harmless and pretty funny if you think about it. Anders read those schematics, so he knows there are several other ways we could get back, no harm done.” 

Axl frowned.

“It wasn’t harmless, I nearly broke my nose.”

“Because you were running when you reached the doors Axl. If you had been walking you wouldn’t have been hurt. Anders never plays pranks where people risks getting physically hurt you know this.” Ty pointed out and Axl had to agree. Anders’ jokes tended more towards the ‘mess with your head’ variety. Things that would confuse or embarrass you but could be explained if you had the mental and verbal facilities to do so. 

Mike frowned. “Actually I’m impressed he found the courage to even leave the room at all, let alone find our route and block it.”

“Oh come on, he’s just playing it up for us. He wasn’t that scared.” Axl scoffed and Olaf gave a small nod of agreement.

“No he was scared when we arrived here. Genuinely so.” Ty said and hefted up in the last mattress. 

“He was.” Mike confirmed. “He is.” He amended and helped Ty with the mattress. “You should have seen him as we were setting up the ‘camp’. He was just waiting for a strange sound so he’d have an excuse to bolt.” 

“He’s that scared?” Olaf asked, starting to feel a little guilty now for holding him back when he tried to escape the car.

“He is. Actually I’ve never seen him as scared as that before, if you don’t count the day Helen was shot in front of him.” Mike answered. 

“If he’s that scared how come he’s still here?” Axl asked, still somewhat sceptical towards Anders’s fears.

“Because I made it a thing.” Olaf said realization striking. “Well fuck. I just wanted him to shut up and do it, I didn’t mean to torture the kid.” He said sounding really contrite. 

“We know grandpa. You’d never do that.” Axl said and slung his free arm around Olaf’s shoulder.

“Well we better get back to him, he was really nervous about you lot and with the time we’ve been taking he’s a nervous wreck by now.” Yet despite his words Mike held them back for one more minute. “Look I promised him if he still felt like this tomorrow we’d look for something else to do, or at least drive him into town so he could get home. So just, just be nice to him okay? I know he’s an annoying little prick most of the time, but he’s fighting every instinct in his body right now to be here, so the least we can do is try.” 

Everyone agreed and they resumed their walk.

 

**********

 

Anders was sitting on one of the tables him and Mike had pulled out earlier, legs swinging as they dangled of the side.

He’d been nervous when he’d mentioned that maybe they should go help the others find those blasted mattresses or they would never get home, which was really his very poor attempt at disguising his concern for them. 

He’d tried phoning them but hadn’t managed to get through so Mike had said he’d go alone to find them and that Anders should stay behind and wait in case they got back.

Anders had disagreed, almost violently so. There was no way he was getting left behind to die alone while the other wanders the house of horror, but Mike had lost what little patience he’d shown before, told Anders that he was being stupid and that he should calm the fuck down before Mike lost his temper completely and there would be no need for spiritual intervention to end his sorry existence. The anger had finally swayed Anders to, if not agreeing then at least to stay anyway, something he was beginning to regret by now.

‘Why the fuck didn’t I go along anyway? Mike would hardly have hit me for coming along and it’s not as if it was necessary for me to stay here, Ullr wouldn’t lose the sent, he would know if they headed back here and just follow.’ “God I’m such an idiot!” Anders said, closed his eyes and let himself fall back unto the table.

His eyes shot open when he heard something not unlike a giggle.

Leaning up on his elbows he cast his gaze around the room.

Thanks to the placement of the candles he’d lit, the vaulted ceiling and the starlight shining in through the windows the room was fairly well lit and only the farthest corners was completely shrouded in a thick layer of darkness. 

Anders picked up his flashlight that he’d kept handy right beside him, he wasn’t taking any chances that the candles would get blown out by any sudden or mysterious gust of wind thank you very much, turned it on and let the beam illuminate the dark spots one by one.

Nothing was there to be seen.

Sighing he turned the torch of and lay back down again eyes closing once more. 

“And now I’m hearing things, just great.” He mumbled, then swore silently as he heard the sound again. This time he was sure it was a giggle.

“The fuck?” He sat up again only this time he hopped of the table as he griped the torch took a few steps away from the table and did another sweep. Nothing.

“Hello?” No answer.

“This makes no sense.” He said then growled as he got a sudden idea why Mike had wanted him to stay behind. “If those assholes are having a go at me I’ll fucking end them.”

Again the giggle was heard this time much closer.

“I’m not playing your game so forget it!” He yelled at the door.

A pouty little voice sounded from directly behind him.

“But I love to play, and it’s been ever so long since anyone played with me.”

Anders turned around.

There on the table where he’d been sitting only moments before sat a little girl clutching a worn teddy bear and pouting at him. 

“I’m Lucy will you be my friend?” She asked putting on her best smile, which was only made more radiant by the starlight shining through her… shining right through her. Anders blinked a few times trying to dispel the phantasm before him. 

The girl frowned at his lack of response then she smiled and stood up on the table. Her smile vanished as the maneuverer made her lose her grip on the bear and send it tumbling down towards a few of the lit candles. 

“Oh no!” She yelled despair in her voice. But the bear never reached the flames. Anders had reacted like any caring older sibling would and reached out to save the treasured bear from the flames.

He now held the strangely light and oddly incorporeal bear in his right hand. 

“You saved him!” The girl squealed in delight.

“Ehm…” He managed to get out, then in the lack of knowing what to say to this strange turn of events held the bear out for the girl to take. 

“Thank you.” She said and hugged the bear tight. Then holding the bear quite firmly in one hand, she threw out her arms. “Catch me!” She shouted with glee and jumped into the arms Anders had instinctively held out as the child leaped into the air. 

He didn’t feel the jolt of weight you’d expected of a mortal child, nor the chill normally associated with the paranormal. Instead a soaring heat engulfed him and set his nerves alight with fire and excruciating pain unlike any he’d ever know making the darkness dance before his eyes.

 

Anders let out a single soul felt scream and everything faded away.

 

***********

 

As they turned the corner in to Corridor A1 N the four of them saw a soft yellow light emitting from the cracks and windows in the dining room doors, it made the door seem almost inviting and cosy.

The illusion didn’t last long though, for suddenly the air was torn by a terrible blood curling scream followed almost immediately by a flash of bright golden light. 

For a second everything went back to what it had been before the flash with the candlelight shining out to greet them… then a child’s voice was heard crying out in fright and the lights flickered out all at once leaving the corridor in darkness. 

 

“What the fuck…?” Olaf managed to get out, breaking the stunned stillness that had griped them.

Mike let go of the mattress and rand for the doors. “ANDERS!” 

“Shit.” Axl cursed and took off after him.

Ty groaned and fell to his knees beside Olaf who had still stood stunned.

“Ty! Shit Ty are you alright?” he asked and kneeled beside his grandson. “Mike! Axl!” He yelled.

“Darkness.” Ty ground out.

“What?”

“Darkness… in there… make them… stop.” He said weakly pointing towards Mike and Axl who had stopped at Olaf’s shout and was now standing there looking somewhat uncertain as to whether they should go back to where they could see something was wrong or go investigate the cause of the scream that had come from where they’d last seen Anders.

“Get back here.” Olaf called out.

“But Anders…” 

“Ty says you need to get back here, so move it.” Olaf bit out, and with a reluctant look at the dark doors both Mike and Axl jogged back to the other two.

“What is it Ty?” Mike asked, now that he was closer and the light from Axl’s torch bounced off on the dusty floor to illuminate Ty’s features he could see his brother was once again pale and Hod seemed to shimmer just under the surface. 

“He’s.. not… in there.” He ground out then seemed to have an inner dialog. “Hod says Bragi is not in there.”

“What? How can Hod tell?” Axl asked.

Ty waved him off.

“It doesn’t matter now Axl we need to get out of here.”

“What?” Mike asked looking back down the corridor. ‘Was… was it getting darker?’

“I’m telling you, Hod is telling you, that whatever is behind that door is Dark and it’s only a matter of time before it takes notice of us, so we need to be some place not here as quickly as possible.”

“What about Anders?” Olaf asked as he helped Ty get his legs under him again.

Mike closed his eyes and cast his senses out.

He staggered a second as they seemed to ‘ping’ of something that felt… well ‘dark’ as Ty had said.

“I can’t quite get a fix on him, it’s like something’s blocking me, but he’s not in there anymore that’s for sure. And Hod is right we need to move.” 

“Where to?” Axl asked

“Outside. It’ feels lighter outside.” Ty said and lead the way as they ran towards the reception area, light beams bouncing around and hard won mattresses lying forgotten in the ever darkening corridor.


	6. I met a man who wasn't there

“Fuck!” Axl growled as he nearly made a repeat performance of running into the doors when the outer doors proved to be locked.

“We are not breaking those down.” Mike said looking at the huge planks of solid oak. “We’ll have to find another way out.” Mike walks up to the floor plan and silently thanks Anders for bringing it to his attention earlier. “There’s an exit just down the hall here, and if that’s closed we have to try the one by the gym or smash a window.”

“Right, let’s get going.” Olaf said. And they were of running down the corridor.

 

The first exit was locked, the second one was as well.

“Window smashing it is then.” Axl said and elbowed the window next to the door.

The result was spectacular only in the amount of cursing Axl did when the only damage dealt was the one to his pride and elbow. 

Mike took a look at the glass.

“It’s reinforced.”

“Oh you think?!” Axl bit out still nursing his elbow. 

“It makes sense, if you have a bunch of loony’s running around you’d want glass they can’t just break.” Olaf put in.

“And you couldn’t have said this ‘before’ I elbowed it?”

“I didn’t think about it?”

Ty stepped up to the window as well.

“It Is reinforced.”

“Yeah Ty I just said.” Mike pointed out.

“No, well yes, but it’s more… dark. Like the darkness in this place is so much a part of every brick that the building itself have become a paranormal entity.”

“So it’s like we are in a gigantic living organism, like we are the invading microbes and that darkness is just the antibodies trying to dispel us?” Axl asks causing everyone to stare at him.

“What?! Look it was like that on an episode of Classic Star Trek okay??”

“Oh, now I’m more relaxed. For a second there I thought you’d been possessed or something.” Olaf said whipping his forehead. “Phew.”

“Fuck you too grandpa.”

“Well where ever it was from it sort of fits.” Ty said.

“Which is all fine, or rather not, but the point is: how do we get out?” Mike asked.

 

*creak* 

The doors to the gym opened. 

 

Everyone stared at the door.

“Should we run?” Olaf asked Ty, seemingly having accepted that Ty as Hod had a good handle on where the darkness was.

Ty frowned a few seconds.

“Well I can’t sense anything dark in there beyond what is the general feeling of the building. The real presence is still back … back with all our stuff. There is a presence here though it’s not really dark.”

“Sooo should we run?” Axl repeated Olaf’s question.

“No, no we follow it.” Ty said and resolutely took a step toward the door, the others quick to follow behind.

 

They walked on in silence as they crossed the big gymnastics hall, the only sound that of their shoes occasionally squeaking on the floor. 

It was Axl who broke the silence first.

“So ehm Ty, you never really explained how come you can feel al this or how you knew Anders wasn’t in the room anymore. I thought Ullr was the only one who could do that?”

“Hod is the god of all things cold and dark. That’s why I could sense the darkness.”

“But why didn’t you sense it before? It must have been here from the start right?” Mike asked.

“Almost every house has some darkness to it. The older the house generally the more darkness has had time to collect, that’s why old houses are haunted I guess. As for this building, when we came here it didn’t feel that dark, oh sure there was something, but as I said there always is. Whatever the darkness is it became more pronounced when night fell, but it was really like it just descended all of a sudden, like something drew it here.”

“Maybe that flash of light?” Axl suggested. 

“You did get dizzy straight after when the lights went out.” Olaf pointed out. “And opposites attract, so it’s possible whatever caused the light was what made the darkness ‘come out to play’ as it were.” 

“Which not only makes sense, but tie in nicely with the second part of your question Axl. You asked how I knew Anders wasn’t in there. The answers is I didn’t.”

“But you said…?” Axl began confused.

“I said Bragi wasn’t in there. You see just as Hod is darkness Bragi is light. They always know each other.” Ty explained causing Olaf to face-palm.

“That’s why you two act like you do, either growling at each other or damn near flirting. You’re like a Norse Ying and Yang! Why didn’t I think of that before?”

Axl cracked a grin.

“Have you noticed that Anders always end up on the feminine side of these things?” he remarked causing everyone to smile. Then his face turned worried. “I wonder what happened to him. Mike said he was too scared to leave the room but Ty said he wasn’t in there. I hope he is alright. Mike can you find him now that we are further from the shadow?”

Mike stood still for a few seconds eyes closed.

“He’s… he’s in the direction we came from. Not in the room.” He quickly added at their concerned faces. “He’s outside I think.”

“Even more reason for us to get a move on and join him.” Ty said and upped the pace. He was just about to reach for the handle when the door, again, opened before him.

A ghostly giggle could be heard from the other side, then the sound of bare feet running on tiles.

“One thing’s for certain,” Mike said, “I’ll be glad to be out of here.”

 

The other side of the door turned out to be the other end of the children’s ward they had been in earlier. 

The temperature plummeted as soon as the door closed behind them.

“It’s a trap!” Mike ground out and pushed Axl behind him.

“I don’t think so. Look!” Ty said and pointed to the window just beside them.

The word ‘Hello’ was being written on the iced over glass and a small handprint appeared beside it. 

Then in the pane beside that one the words: ‘Follow’ and ‘feet’.

“Follow feet?” Olaf asked clearly not following.

An arrow pointing down was added between the words.

“Oh, follow the footprints!” Axl exclaimed and was rewarded with a smiley face on the window. 

They all pointed their flashlights at the floor, and sure enough little footprints appeared in the dust leading towards the ward doors.

“Well you ‘heard’ Casper, follow the foot prints.” Mike sighed. All this supernatural shit was giving his skeptic’s brain a headache. 

 

They followed the little feet out the ward and down the stairs until they got to the first landing where a huge window overlooked most of what had no doubt once been a beautiful park, now it was just a bunch of stray trees and shrubbery scattered about in the tall starlit grass. 

Once again the temperature declined and writing appeared.

‘open’

Mike tried but the window wouldn’t budge. 

“It’s locked.” He said feeling slightly foolish talking to thin air.

‘card trick’ the ghost wrote. 

“What card trick?” Olaf asked.

The little ghost added the word ‘Anders’ above ‘card trick’ and Ty broke out into a grin.

“Oh I see. Does anyone have their wallet with them?”

“I do why?” Mike asked. 

“Give me the most solid card you have and I’ll do a ‘card trick’ Anders taught me.” Ty said and proceeded to do so as soon as Mike handed him a card.

“He taught you how to break into people’s houses by the window?” Mike asked as Ty managed to get the window unlocked in a few tries.

“No, well yes I suppose I could use it like that if I wanted to, but what Anders taught me was how to open the windows in our old cellars so I could get out when dad sent me down there as punishment.” 

“How come he never taught me that trick?” Axl asked as they crawled out the window.

“Because …” Ty began but was interrupted.

“Because you were never sent to the basement Axl. Now would you close the damn window behind you so the fucking scary baddies can’t follow you out?” Anders voice rang out from somewhere in the darkness of the night.

 

“Anders?” Axl called but couldn’t spot his brother.

“Close the damn window!” Anders repeated from somewhere in front of them.

“But…” Olaf began.

“CLOSE IT!” Anders shouted and sprang forward whit a hiss, causing Mike who had been the last one out to slam the window shut with enough force that the lock engaged.

Then, still stunned, he took a few steps forward and looked down. It couldn’t be, it simply couldn’t be.

“Anders?”

“In the flesh, well sort of anyway.”

“Fuck me.” Axl exclaimed.

“Not even in a lifetime of Sunday’s bro.” Anders said and smiled a true Cheshire smile.

“But you’re…”

“A cat, yes believe me I’ve noticed.” The big flaxen cat said and rolled it’s eyes. They were the same blue as Anders’ only the pupils were slit instead like a real cat’s. “It’s a bit complicated and we really shouldn’t linger out in the open where they can see us, especially not with you waving those torches around. Turn them off, the moonlight should be enough to see by for now, so follow me and I’ll take you to some place they can’t get to us.” He said and began walking only to stop when his family failed to follow. “Well are you coming? Or do I have to show you my nice new shiny claws to get you moving?” 

That got them going pretty fast.

 

“So,” Axl asked as they followed behind the cat. “Can I call you Salem?”

The cat’s ears flattened and the tail twitched as Anders hissed back. “Can I call you Hilda?”

“Why Hilda? Why not Harvey? Or even Sabrina if you have to call me a girl’s name?” Axl asked.

“Please, if I’m Salem the only one who could possibly be Sabrina is Dawn, she knows about cat’s.”

“But, she doesn’t even have a cat!” Ty felt the need to point out.

“Yeah, well unless we fix this fuck up she’s getting one. Because I’m sure as hell not moving in with one of you lot.” Anders said and with a graceful leap hopped up on the railing of the stairs leading to the upper part of the garden and dashed up to the top of the stairs. 

“There are twenty steps and the fifth from the bottom is cracked so skip that one.” Anders said from where he’d perched at the top of the railing.

Olaf looked at the solid black that was all he could see of the stairs.

“So you have cat’s eyes?” He asked as he took Anders advice and skipped the fifth step.

“Right now I have cat’s everything. Including nose and let me tell you more than one of you ‘dos but reek’.” They didn’t need to see it to know that the cat’s whiskers twitched with amusement.

“You would too if you had dragged heavy ass mattresses around and then had to run from … whatever it was we ran from.” Ty defended his honor. 

“Funnily enough you are the only one that doesn’t really smell of sweat, you smell of aftershave and something else… not unlike winter and dark chocolate actually. Most intriguing. Now could you pick up the pace a bit, the natives are getting restless?” Anders said and got up from his perch. His ears twitching slightly, but generally pointing forward.

Olaf followed the direction of Anders gaze and caught sight of flashes of light at the far end of the park.

“Is that..?”

“Yessss!” Anders hissed and his tail doubled its normal size. Abruptly he turned around jumped down and took off at a fast pace forcing the rest of them to jog if they wanted to keep up. 

 

“Oh please tell me you are joking.” Axl exclaimed as he saw where Anders was heading.

The cat turned it’s head back and the starlight sparkled in it’s eyes as it sang:

“Will you come to Lucy’s place?  
Will you spend the night?

If you enter Lucy’s maze,  
She might give you a fright.”

 

“You know that song?” Axl asked amazed.

“Know it? Pfff, who do you think wrote it?” Anders asked back.

“Wrote it? But it’s older than I am?!” Olaf asked.

“That’s not important now.” Anders said coming to a stop right outside the entrance to the huge and, now that they were up close, very threatening looking maze.

“Now you really don’t want to get lost in here. So everyone grab hold of the person in front and whoever goes in front, Don’t step on my tail.” Anders said and waited patiently until Mike bullied everyone into complying. “Awww my little ducklings.” Anders said in a honey covered voice and snickered. “Well come on we have a schedule to keep.” With a final nod he trotted of slightly ahead of Ty as he entered the maze tail held aloft.

 

They had been walking in silence for a while, Anders leading them slowly but surely towards the middle of the maze, when Olaf brought up what more than one of them had been thinking. 

“So Anders, a question?”

“Shoot.” The cat said and turned left.

“How come you’re a cat?”

“I told you, it’s complicated.”

“Do you think maybe you could try to explain?” Mike asked from the back.

“Look just wait until we reach the center, I’ll try to explain as much as I can once we get there.” Anders asked. 

Three turns later and they emerged in the center of the maze. The fountain Olaf had mentioned earlier, a bunch of child all reaching for an apple, was the eye-catching feature. But a small squeal of delight caused everyone to look down at the ghost child that came running from the other side of the fountain.

“Anders, Anders! You came back!” She yelled clapping her hands as she saw the men with him. “And you found your family!” She smiled and winked at the men then she hopped up on the ledge of the fountain where Anders quickly joined her. 

Lucy smiled and began petting the cat who closed his eyes and let out a purr as she scratched under his chin.

“Errr…Anders?” Ty managed to get out, his brain refusing to work on all cylinders as he watched his brother, the cat, who stayed as far away from children as he could and was terrified of all things supernatural cozying up to this little ghost and … purring?

“Hmm?” The cat blinked open one eye the seemed to come back into himself.

“Oh right explanation. Where to start?”

“Why you are a cat would be a good place I think.” Mike sugested.

“Well we needed to get you out of the house. Oh it was easy enough for the other ghosts to guide you inside the house, but none of them can manifest out in the open, only Lucy can do that, the rest are bound to the building. And since it’s bad luck for anyone to catch more than a glimpse of Lucy outside her maze,” The cat gave the girl a stern look and she lowered her head in shame, “I needed a body to get me to you. Cat’s are pretty closely linked to the spirit side, and this kitty owed me a favour for letting it out of the asylum so it volunteered. So here we are, me a cat. Seem the logic choice really.” 

“Yes but Why would you need a body? Couldn’t you just come as you were?” Ty asked and Lucy shifted on the bench.

“It’s all my fault.” She said, her little voice wavering. “I knew I shouldn’t show myself. But you woke me up, and I was so lonely, and he was so bright and funny I just couldn’t stay away. And I lost Brown but he saved him and gave him back and, and I was just so happy that he didn’t scream or faint or run that I just had to hug him! I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to!” The last was whispered and the girl broke down in tears. Huge sobs shaking her little frame. 

“Oh no Lucy. Lucy don’t.” The cat said and nuzzled her shoulder. The girl just cried even harder.

The cat sighed and looked at his brothers.

“Do you know how Lucy died?” He asked.

“She, she jumped after her teddy bear and….” Axl whispered but couldn’t get the last part out when the little girl in question was sitting there before them.

“She burned yes. She jumped into fires embrace.” Anders said eyes fading to yellow as a silvery light flowed out of the cat only to manifest in the form of their brother into who’s open arms Lucy threw herself and sopped onto his shoulder. 

A shoulder just as transparent as her own.

“When Lucy embraced me I burned too.” 

“I killed you.” Lucy whispered and clung to Anders.

“I know. I forgive you.” He said and stroked the child’s fair head.


	7. Though you fight to stay alive…

The other Johnsons stood in silence.

“You’re… you’re dead?” Ty asked face as pale as it had ever been.

“Not, not quite dead.” Anders said.

“But you’re a ghost now?” Axl asked.

“Again, not quite.”

“Anders, please, please start making sense.” Olaf begged.

Anders shifted Lucy around with an ease that oddly spoke of familiarity and habit. 

“Yes I died.” Lucy whimpered and Anders schussed her. “I didn’t stay dead thoug.”

“No you became a ghost.” Axl said then blinked as if realizing what he’d just said to his brother. “This is so fucked up.” He mumbled.

“Preaching to the choir there preacher.” Anders said and sat down on the fountains ledge. “Lucy, can you and the cat play with the flowers while I talk to my brothers’ sweetheart?” He said and as he touched the murky water in the basin it became clear and water lily’s blossomed. 

Lucy jumped up and ran further down the ledge the cat hot on her heels.

“Don’t fall in!” Anders called after her, earning himself a splash of water as reply. “Brat.” He said fondness evident in his voice.

The same fondness shone in his eyes as he looked as his family.

“It really is good to see you again.” He said then sighed. “But I’m not making sense, for you it’s been what a few hours since we last saw each other?”

Mike gave a nod in confirmation.

“You better sit down this could be a bit hard to make sense of. But yes I died, and yes I became a ghost, but that’s not the whole story. When Lucy burned me, she was horrified at what she’d done so she tried to take her fire back thinking that maybe that would bring me back, at the same time Bragi’s spirit was leaving my dying body but Lucy’s effort reached him and they were able to sort of patch my body up but my own spirit had already been rejected by the body so I was just sort of ‘floating around’, they wanted to get me back so both Bragi and I could basically get right back at it, only the light from my spirit and in particular the light from Bragi’s attracted the dark spirits, and forced Lucy and Bragi to move quickly. So Bragi, or most of him, floated back into my body to keep it alive and protected, and Lucy took me and the bit of Bragi stuck in me, by the hand and ran for it.”

“That explains why you were so difficult to get a fixed location on, you were two places at once.” Mike said.

“Yes and I’d really like your help in getting to be in one piece in one place again. I’ve almost forgotten what it feels like to have a body, I think I would have forgotten if I hadn’t had to use the cat.”

At their uncomprehending looks he elaborated.

“Time moves very differently for a ghost as compared to how it moves for a human. You know that your fifth year follows you fourth and that you will only live them once. Ghosts, or rather spirits, don’t have the same restrictions, they can move around time almost as they please. They can go as far back as they have lived or the spirits they choses to travel with have, but they can never go further into the future than what they themselves have ‘lived’. For instance, you asked me earlier who I could have written that poem?”

Olaf gave a nod.

“Lucy took me back to her own time, a place the dark spirits couldn’t reach me while I learned to be a ghost, which is actually a lot trickier than one would believe, and there Bragi and I composed it and taught Lucy how to sing it while she was still alive. It’s even in the song: A ghost taught Lucy how to sing.’ That ghost was me.” Anders smiled and put a finger to his chin in a thoughtful pose. “You know strictly speaking with all the traveling and times I’ve lived in the past, I’m older that you now grandpa. Or well my spirit is.”

“That is both incredibly disturbing and cool at the same time.” Axl said. “But how do we get you back into one as it were?” 

“Simple, you get me and my body in the same place, preferably the place where I died, and Lucy and Bragi can get me put back together, if they get the time. “

“So your body is back in the room?” Olaf asked.

Anders shook his head. “No. It’s somewhere else inside the asylum, headed for …” Anders gave a shudder. “Headed for the labs.”

“Those are real?! The nazi war criminal and all that shit was real?!”

“Yes and no, he wasn’t a nazi war criminal, he was actually a prisoner in the war that got sent to Birkenau as a ‘privileged’ prisoner because he was Austrian. He worked in the ‘hospitals’ and ‘labs’ there and the sight of what he saw stayed with him. It haunted him so much that even here on the other side of the earth he eventually felt the only way to stop being tormented by these visions was to try and recreate them, every single one of them. Being the administrator he was in a position to hire people who he felt or knew would be suited to help him do so. And that’s when the patients started disappearing, and he would have run out of patients before he’d stopped on his own. Luckily ‘someone’ started a riot among the patients and the administrators house burned to the grounds.” Anders eyes held a disturbing glint as he’d said that last sentence. “So no not a nazi, but he stood as apprentice under them. And now a piece of his spirit and those of his most trusted henchmen is trapped inside the various buildings where they hunt the other restless spirits that haunt this place, and when they catch them they pull them with them down into the labs and torture them. And remember these are spirits not living bodies so they won’t bleed to death, cut of limbs will reappear the next night and so on and so forth. But while they won’t die, they will feel it, every last bit of it. Imagine that, being tortured for all eternity. And you say you don’t believe in hell.” This last Anders said to Olaf.

“I think I do now.” The tall man said, his face pale. 

“So if they have your body…”

“They can’t hurt my mortal body. They can’t hurt anything without a soul, and they can’t hurt the god spirit which oddly enough doesn’t count as a soul, Bragi let me know as much when we halfway parted. But if we don’t get my body back before it dies again on its own, from hunger or thirst most likely, my spirit will be pulled back to it at the time of death and I won’t be able to escape them.” His eyes shone from within as he regarded them. “I will be trapped and tortured forever or until such a time where every trace of these buildings has been erased from this earth. And that’s every single one of them. Even the tool shed.”

Once again the five of them were silent and only Lucy’s sweet voice as she talked to the cat could be heard.

 

“So, how do we do this?” Ty asked.

“If they catch you they could potentially kill you and get your spirits just like they’ll get mine. Are you sure you want to risk that?” Anders asked back. 

“How do we do this?” Axl asked moving up beside Ty and placing his hand on Ty’s shoulder.

“You could just torch the place and my spirit would be set free along with the others when my body burns, I’ve already tried it so hey nothing new.” Anders tried to dissuade them.

“How do we do it?” Olaf asked 

“You know I could just merge with the cat again, it doesn’t mind, really. And a house cat lives what some fifteen to twenty years? That’ll give me almost twelve years, maybe more. I’m sure I could get used to it, and you could all stay safe?”

“Anders.” Mike moved closer to his brother. “We are doing it, with or without your help. Now obviously we’d do better with you, but if you won’t help us help you we’ll figure something out on our own.”

Anders looked at Mike then had to look away as his eyes became suspiciously bright. 

“If anything happens to one of you… I don’t think I could live with it.”

“What, you mean you’d die?” Mike mock scoffed, then added. “Again?”

Anders sniffed but smiled back.

“Yes you asshole, again.”

“So we’ll make sure that won’t happen. Besides we sort of owe you for getting you killed.” Mike said ruefully.

Anders looked confused. 

“You didn’t want to come, you didn’t want to stay, hell you even warned us you would die here.” Olaf said and snorted, “Which is a sight more prophetic than I’ve ever managed to be.” 

“We should have listened to you. We should have listened as human beings, we should have listened as your fellow gods, but most of all we should have listened as your family. We are sorry. Now what must we do?” Axl asked.

Anders blinked again, caught between being touched beyond belief and plain disbelief at the notion of anyone saying something like that to him. 

“Right.” He said and coughed, then started anew with a firm voice. “We need to find my body, distract the dark ones long enough for you to get it either back to the room where I died or in here to Lucy’s fountain. It’s the two places that hold the most power for me and Bragi will be able to draw on that to help the process. The room will be the place where the ritual itself has the highest chance of success but the maze is the most secure and more certain to give us the time we need. I think you should go for the maze.

Now assuming we accomplish all that, we need to be ready to light this place up like an American Fourth of July. Once the ritual begins mine and Bragi’s spirits will light up the spirit night sky like a sun going nova. And as bound to the buildings as the dark ones are, given enough motivation they will risk draining themselves to gain the power a light spirit holds. Lucy’s power won’t be able to protect us because she has to lend her power to Bragi’s, and the power of the maze itself can only hold them back for so long, so their power bases must be destroyed. Not only for my sake, but for the sake of all the spirits trapped here, they deserve release. Do you follow?”

“With you so far yes.” Mike said and the other nodded their agreement. 

“Good. Then I propose that two of you go for the body, while the other two start readying the ground floor for lighting and as soon as they are done with that starts on the buildings out here. Lucy?” He called the girl and she came dancing over to him again throwing her arms around him. 

“Yes Anders?”

“We were talking about the plan do you remember what you must do?”

“I’ll get the other spirits, the nice ones, to help your brothers by unlocking and opening all the doors.”

“And?”

“And help them not get caught, and then I’ll get them to open the old gas pipes that still run in the buildings but that’s only after your brothers are out. Oh and once I tell them this I’ll go and hide here so no one sees me by mistake and drops dead. Right?”

“Right. You go now and we’ll head out once you’re back. And be careful!”

He called after her as she danced away, the maze changing to let her pass without having to detour. 

“You really care for her.” Mike said with a trace of wonder in his voice.

“I spend the equivalent of some two hundred years with her, I don’t just care for her Mike, I fucking love that kid.” Anders expression dared any of them to make fun of this fact, they all wisely chose not to. 

“So who should do what?” Olaf asked.

“Olaf and I will get Anders’ body, we are the strongest and it’s only logical to give that task to someone who can carry a body and run at the same time.” Axl said.

“Axl if they get you they all die.” Anders said. “Not that I want any of you to die, it’s just all of you at once and I might truly be the first ghost to die again.” 

“Besides wouldn’t it make sense if Ty and I went? I can find the body and Ty can sense if any of those dark ones are near.”

“That also makes sense. Both of you make sense.” Olaf said in his annoying Zen like voice.

“But none of you can carry him if you have to run. Not very far anyway. At least one of us should go on the ..ehm..body team.” 

“Axl you can’t go down there.” Mike began.

“I’m fucking Odin I can do what I want.”

“Being able to do something is not the same as it being a good idea to do so.” Anders said sagely causing everyone to look at him funny.

“What?!” 

“Your age wouldn’t happen to be about seven hundred or so?” Axl asked.

“Why?”

“And could you maybe change the order of the words a little?” Olaf added.

“Could I..?! HEY! I’m not fucking Yoda!”

“And no one is asking you to, how would that even work?” Mike deadpanned, meaning that he was now the one getting stared at. “What? I watched Star Wars, I can be funny!” 

“But you so rarely are.” Anders shot back with a smirk then got serious. 

“Ty, how precisely can you pinpoint the position of my body, or rather of Bragi if you tried?”

Ty closed his eyes and let Hod take the lead. 

“Pretty close I’d say.” He answered.

“If you had to choose between two almost parallel corridors, do you think you could say which one it was?”

Ty thought for a while then had to admit that he wasn’t sure he could. 

“Then I think Mike and Olaf should go. I know you want to Axl, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Axl shook his head. “No, I’m going. Me and Mike will go get your body, and I cannot believe I just said that, Ty and Olaf can light up the house. I’m Going Mike! Not one more word, I’ll pull the Odin card and order all of you if I have to.”

“Okay.” Mike agreed. “I don’t like it but okay.”

“As you wish Axl, it’s not like I can stop you right now.” Anders said, but he too had more to say. “But if anything goes wrong and it looks like you have to fight, don’t. Don’t try to fight them, run. If you can’t get out with my body you leave it like so much trash and you get yourself the hell out, and burn the place to the ground!”

“But you’ll die then.” Axl said clearly very much against that ending. 

“Technically I’m already dead Axl.” Anders pointed out, causing not only the youngest of them to wince. “And I’d much rather my soul be released from this realm that spend an eternity in the hands of those things or worse yet being responsible for one or more of you dying. So you promise me right now, if it looks like you have to run you do so without remorse.”

“But…”

“PROMISE!” The entire maze garden was covered in a thick layer of frost and the water in the fountain was frozen solid with Anders outburst.

“I, I promise I’ll run, but not that it will be without remorse.” Axl managed to get out.

“Likewise.” Mike said as Anders turned his steely eyes on him.

“Good.” Anders said and the garden air became breathable again.

“Fucking hell man.” Ty said as he looked around, clearly impressed. “That took some power, believe me I’d know.” 

Anders did the ghost equivalent of a flush, his cheeks became more solid for a second.

“Well yes quite, now to get the dark away from my body we’ll need a distraction to get them away and moving in the opposite direction than the one you need to go. So with the kind permission from the kitten I’ll be borrowing its skin to follow Mike and Axl as they head out for my body, and once we know where it is I’ll go in, do a little ‘something’ and make them chase me, it shouldn’t be hard since I’ve been told on more than one occasion that I have a gift for pissing people off. Bragi will let me know when you are out and ready and I’ll end the chase and return here. The others have promised to distract them after that, but we can’t risk them doing so with you in the building.”

“I’m back!” Lucy called as she waltzed into the center again.

“And?”

“They are ready.”

“Good girl. Ty, Olaf there are gas and oil in practically every tool shed on the grounds, and there is a tool shed for almost every building, they aren’t hard to find and the same goes for janitors closets which the ghosts will show you once you are inside the building. Remember you only have to do the ground floor the ghost will do the other floors.”

“I might be asking a stupid question but why can’t the ghosts do all the floors?” Ty asked.

“It’s not a stupid question. Ghosts can only emulate life and what they see. They’ve never seen anyone trying to burn down a building so they can’t do it. But once you’ve done the first floor…” Anders left the sentence open.

“Then they can mimic on the others, gotcha.” Ty said.

“And if you see the other two heading out the main building feel free to start torching the buildings as you go along, the others can help you once they’ve brought my body here, and Lucy will get to light up the main building. Oh yes one more thing before we head out: No flashlights.”

“What?! But how will we see?” Olaf asked and everyone concurred.

“Like this.” Anders said and held his hand out to the cat that had been sitting patiently beside him. The cat leaned it’s head against his hand and Anders blinked twice, his pupils becoming slit like the cat’s. Then he took a step forward towards Mike. “If I may?” He said and held his hands up as if to do a Vulcan mind melt but not yet touching.

“Should I close my eyes?” Mike asked.

“Whatever makes you happy. Now hold still it might feel a little weird and possibly a little cold.” Anders said and placed his hands over Mike’s closed eyes.

“Is something supposed to happen?” Mike asked then had to do a double take when his eyes blinked open. “Wow, this is even better than night goggles.”

“And you look creepy as all fuck.” Axl said voice in awe. “I’m next!” 

 

Once everyone had gotten their night vision in place Anders merged with the cat and Lucy opened the maze for them to make it quicker to get out.

“I’ll leave it like that so you can get in fast too.” She said and waved them goodbye.

“Ty, Olaf head for the front doors they are the safest, the ghost will see to you once you are in there, but keep a weather eye open yourself anyway. And good luck.”

“Back at you.” Ty and Olaf said as they jogged towards the front of the building.

“So Mike this is your show now, where do we go?” Anders said and looked up at his much much taller brother. 

“This way.” Mike said and lead them down the side of the building until they came to a set of big metal doors. “We need to get in here.” He tried the doors, locked.

“Leave that to me.” Anders said walked to the doors and with a simple brush of his feline body against the metal the lock clicked open. “Piece of cake.” The cat said and moved aside so Mike could open the door.

“Cool.” Axl said.

“Handy.” Mike agreed. 

 

Under the steady guidance of Ullr, with the occasional helping paw from Anders they soon found what they were looking for.

In the second level of the basement four dark almost formless beings was carrying the limb form of Anders body. 

“You stay here I’ll go do my thing, wait until we are out of sight before you go for the body, and if they do catch me just remember your promise. Now wish me luck.” He whispered and was off before they could even open their mouths to do as requested.

Silent as the ghost he was or the cat he was possessing, Anders shot forward and nimbly slipped between the legs of the four beings. Once he’d passed them by a few meters one of them seemed to sense him but didn’t make more than a halfhearted attempt at reaching for him. 

Anders sprang back a few paces hissing and spitting at them. Now both the two in front swung a lib at him and the ones in the back seemed to have noticed him as well, but they still hadn’t let go of the body.

The cat huffed in annoyance then it seemed to almost smile, leaped gracefully up in the air...and let some of Anders soul shine thru.

In the darkness of the corridor the light was absolutely blinding and the effect was immediate. The four creatures that had moved so slowly all sprang forward with unimagined speed, but the cat was quicker. Like a flaxen bolt of lightning it shot of down the corridor away from its pursuers, leaving Mike and Axl free to get the abandoned body. 

Axl gently lifted his brothers body, and yes that thought did make him shiver, and placed it in a fireman’s carry.

“You lead, I’ll carry.” He said to Mike who gave a nod of agreement.

“Come on this way.” 

 

They made it out and into the maze safely, the first smoke and smell of fire revealing that either Ty or Olaf had seen them exit.

“Let’s go help them. Lucy will guard Anders, right?” Axl said, the last part to Lucy who was sitting beside Anders body petting the cat. 

“No one will get him.” She said and looked up a fire burning in her eyes and her hair fluttering from an unseen heat.

“Good.” Axl said and gestured for Mike to precede him out of the maze.

“Come one man, she’ll look after him, she loves him just as much as he loves her.” Axl said as they jogged towards the nearest side building that wasn’t already on fire.

“I know, that’s what worries me. Will she want to let him go?” Mike said but still upped the pace.

 

“Lucy, Lucy close the maze!” Anders said as he ran as fast as his four legs could carry him.

The girl closed it.

“You did so well sweetheart, I’m so proud of you.” Anders said and gave her a hug as soon as he was out of the cat. 

Lucy held on tight but didn’t say anything.

“Lucy?”

“I don’t want you to go.”

“Lucy honey I have to.”

“No you don’t. If I set fire to the hospital the bad ones are gone, and you can stay here with me in the maze forever.” 

“But Lucy I still have a body, I’m still partly alive.”

“We could just let it die, and you’d be here with me.”

“Lucy! I love you sweetheart but you already killed me once, don’t you remember how bad you felt? Do you want to feel like that again?”

“No. But I don’t want to be left here all alone either! When the hospital burns all the other ghost will leave and there will be no one here, you have to stay!” The little girl wailed and clung even harder to Anders.

“Lucy honey I wouldn’t do that to you. The maze was going to burn as well remember? And you would be free to move on to the next world.”

“But I want to be with you.”

“Oh Lucy, we’ll see each other again I’m sure.”

“NO! You have to stay with me!” The girl screamed and the sound of the hospital exploding into flame was heard, but that wasn’t the only fire Lucy had started, the hedges of the maze was ablaze and even the stone fountain was alit with flame.”

“Lucy what are you doing?” Anders yelled and tried to move, but the little spirit held infinitely more power than him and he couldn’t shake her grip.

“If you won’t stay here we can go on to the next world together.” She said as she clutched him tighter still to her body.

“Lucy, Lucy I can’t leave my brothers. They risked their lives for me. Oh gods Lucy let me go you are hurting me.” Anders cried out as the burning sensation from the first time the girl had touched him returned.

The girl gasped and immediately let go of him.

“I’m sorry Anders, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just want to stay with you.” The girl insisted, bitter tears spilling even as she felt part of her ‘body’ begin to burn as well with the destruction of the maze and fountain.

“I’d like you to stay too but I can't see how.” Anders cried the emotional pain almost as bad as the physical. And behind the pain he could feel Bragi beginning to pull him back into his body.

Lucy sobbed even more fiercely as Anders ghostly body started fading.

“I love you sweetheart.” Was the last thing he got out before his spirit faded and was once again back in his earthly body. 

The little girl so wanted to reach out, to feel her friend as she faded but she couldn’t risk hurting him again. She was so alone!

“Miue!”


	8. Epilog

“The police still have no clues in the case of the old Morningwood Asylum arson. A spokesman from the fire department said that he’d never seen such a devastating fire before where not even a single brick survived.

In other news…” The reporter was cut off by Dawn turning of the tv.

“I was watching that.” Ty said, but couldn’t muster up the energy to be cross, especially not when Dawn dropped down to sit in his lap.

“That is why you are never ever again allowed to go on a bonding trip with your family, bad shit always happen.” 

“Yeah but this time it turned out alright don’t you agree?” Ty said and gave a nod with his head towards the comfy chair where Anders was sleeping soundly one arm still bandaged from the burns he’d gotten when the fountain exploded from the heat, the other placed protectively over the large flaxen cat that purred away in his lap and who’s name tag read: Lucy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s all she wrote folks!  
> I hope you had fun, maybe had a few moments where you wanted to look behind you?  
> Well I tried, never done anything even remotely scary before so I’m pleased at least.  
> Also I would recomed that you go chek out Elenhin 's answer to the challange, if you haven't already done so. Infact I would just generally recomend her work.  
> Happy Halloween to everyone!  
> and please, please let me know if you liked it, heck even let me know if you didn't just tell me why please so I can get better.


End file.
